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Friday, April 10, 2009

Preview: Paris to Ancaster 2009

2006 was a nightmare - I had no idea what to expect and was overwhelmed by it. It was my first ever race of any kind. I cracked, the race broke me, I'm lucky I finished. All the way home I cursed about what a stupid race it was... then I started to think about what I could have done differently... and a year later I was back.

2007 2:56:21 (632th/1136)

A dramatic improvement! I knew some tricks - pick up your bike rather than rolling it through mud, for example.

2008 2:48:07 (513th/1064)

Another improvement, but not as good as it could have been. I had a great start, felt strong most of the race, but then cracked on the last hill - I had killer cramps that stopped me dead. I managed to get back going and finish, but it cost me a fair amount of time.

2009 ??:??:?? (???th/????)

I want to nail it. I want to finish knowing I gave it everything, that I covered the 60k of mud and gravel as fast I could. My off-season has been great, I got in way more cycling time than I ever did before, and I've felt very strong in my training runs.

The organizers made one change that should help a lot - they've added a third wave to ease course congestion. In previous years it got so ridiculous, where you actually had to wait in line to get through some parts of the course! Instead of almost 1000 riders in my wave, there will now be 400.